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Background: Ambient air pollution is leading risk factor for health burden in China. Few studies in China have investigated the economic loss related to short-term exposure to ambient PM 2.5 , which could trigger acute onset of cardiorespiratory diseases within a few days.Methods: Daily ambient air pollutants data are obtained for each city from the National Air Quality Monitoring System and daily hospitalization data are obtained from the urban employee-based basic medical insurance scheme database in 74 Chinese cities with an average coverage of 88.5 million urban employees during 2016-2017. A three-stage time-series analytic approach is used in this study to investigate the impact of short-term exposure to ambient fine particulate (PM 2.5 ) air pollution on hospital admissions, expenses and hospital stays of three cause-specific cardiorespiratory diseases, including lower respiratory infections (LRI), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in the included cities. Findings:Based on the time-series analysis using daily hospitalization data, 28,560 LRI cases, 54,600 CHD cases, and 23,989 stroke cases are attributable to ambient PM 2.5 in the 74 cities during the study period, and the related attributable expenses are 220 million CNY (US$ 32.9 million) for LRI, 458 million CNY (US$ 68.5 million) for CHD, and 410 million CNY (US$ 65.8 million) for stroke, respectively. These attributable numbers account for 1.45% to 2.05% of total hospital admissions and 1.10% to 1.51% of total expenses for the three diseases during 2016-2017, respectively. The attributable numbers for the three cause-specific cardiorespiratory diseases would increase to 362,007 hospital admission cases and 3.68 billion CNY expenses ($US550 million) in the entire urban employee population (299 million) in China during 2016-2017, and the related direct economic loss of absence from work would be 798 million CNY (US$ 119.3 million).

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Background: Co-benefit assessments on health and economic impacts of climate change mitigation towards the 2-degree target are lacking, especially from a sectoral perspective.Objectives: This study aims to (1) evaluate PM2.5 pollution-related health impacts on China's road transport sector at both national and provincial levels toward the 2-degree target by 2050; (2) uncover the contribution from the road transport sector compared with that of all sectors; (3) distinguish the contribution from climate change mitigation actions compared with air pollution control oriented actions in road transport sector; and (4) identify the heterogeneous influences at provincial level. Methods: Health and economic impacts are estimated using an integrated approach that combines the GAINS (Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies) model, the IMED/CGE (Integrated Model of Energy, Environment and Economy for Sustainable Development/computable general equilibrium) model and IMED/HEL (Health) model. Five scenarios are proposed based on climate change mitigation and stringency of air pollution control policy.Results: China's road transport sector could contribute to around 10.6% of total PM2.5 concentration reduction, equivalent to 10.8% of the monetized health benefits obtained from achieving the 2-degree target by all sectors. Populous provinces with more 4 manufacturing industries would benefit more. Meanwhile, climate change mitigation action alone can lead to 70% reduction of health impacts by applying air pollution control measures .Conclusions: This research has implications for other emerging economies and those reluctant to engage in climate action. Government should adopt a more flexible policy approach to take into account regional pollution levels and abatement options.